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RENTON, WA—In a bold move for inclusivity, Wizards of the Coast announced today that all copies of the Dungeons & Dragons starter set will include a special D100 for determining your character's gender. "Not sure if your Half-Orc Paladin is a demiboy or agender? Just roll this handy new die," said a WOTC rep. "It makes character creation fast, fun, and streamlined. And don't worry -- if you don't like your gender, just roll it again, no questions asked. In fact, you can do that at any point during the game without even consulting your DM. Change at any time."...

Before getting to the meat of this story, I should probably start with a bit of disclosure. When I was younger, I used to play Dungeons and Dragons. I mean… I played it a lot. Probably obsessively. It started when I was in the Navy, but carried on well into my thirties. That fact is probably what later led me to become somewhat addicted to the online roleplaying game Everquest. So yes… I was one of those nerds.

As Donald Trump continues his pundit-defying dominance of the national polls, with early primaries just days away, the once-unthinkable has become all too thinkable: Could Trump actually pull this off? Could he become president? I'm going to stake out a firm answer: no. Absent extreme and unlikely circumstances*, Trump will never be president. Jack Shafer argues that Trump's success so far is a "black swan" event, an unpredictable and unrepeatable concatenation of improbable circumstances. That sounds about right. But just because some political rules and conventions have been violated doesn't mean they've all vanished. Just because Trump makes no sense...

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — Authorities have arrested a Florida woman who they say tried to stab a deputy with a large sword or machete inside a mobile home filled with thousands of knives, swords and bladed instruments. Deputies said they had removed more than 3,500 “bladed instruments” from the home.

Though more than 100 of the strange objects are known to exist, their purpose remains a puzzling mystery that has perplexed archaeologists since their first discovery. All throughout Europe, small geometric objects known as Roman dodecahedrons have been recovered. As far north as Wales, and further south toward the Mediterranean, the dodecahedrons, usually made of bronze or stone, are seldom larger than about eight to ten centimeters in size. So what was their purpose? Part of what has led to their mystery has been the speculation surrounding their use, as no classical accounts or narratives seem to mention them, let...

Anyone who grew up playing the beloved editions of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons will remember the detailed medieval fantasy artwork that made the role-playing games creatures and characters come to life. Artist David A. Trampier was the man who drew those illustrations. An Illinois newspaper is reporting that he passed away this week at the age of 59. Trampier's renderings of wizards, giant spiders and lizardmen helped electrify the rules, storytelling and play experience of Dungeons & Dragons. But his whereabouts were a mystery for years because the artist faded into obscurity after D&D lodged itself into the consciousness of...

Dungeons & Dragons, that ground-breaking role-playing game, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Specifically, the game's big "4-0" comes this month. It was in January of 1974 when the game's co-creator, Gary Gygax, officially announced in a newsletter that "the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association has now released its set of fantasy campaign rules (Dungeons and Dragons)." In that announcement, Gygax invited folks to drop by his Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, home some Sunday afternoon to experience Dungeons & Dragons themselves. But lo, those four decades ago, when D&D first debuted, no one knew what to make of it. D&D was...

If you're an orc or a wizard, you'd better keep your nose clean. A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit weighed in Wednesday on a matter of grievous import to the nation's prisons: Dungeons & Dragons. And the Court's ruling was bad news for naughty nerds nationwide, concluding that the innocent-seeming board game was inviting trouble. The case brought before the Appeals Court argued that D&D inhibited prison security, because "cooperative games can mimic the organization of gangs and lead to the actual development thereof." And therefore Kevin T. Singer, a long-time dungeon-explorer...

1 Lego 2 Monopoly3 Dungeons and Dragons 4 Wii 5 Nintendo consoles 6 Playstation consoles 7 Scrabble 8 Scalextrix 9 Trivial pursuit 10 Gameboy and other 11 Star wars toys 12 Transformers 13 Microsoft X-Box 14 He-Man & Masters of the 15 Cluedo 16 Meccano 17 Hornby train set 18 Connect 4 19 Airfix 20 Action man 21 Matchbox cars 22 Etch a sketch 23 Teddy bear 24 Rubik cube 25 Atari consoles 26 Play-doh 27 Plasticene 28 Subbuteo 29 Spirograph 30 Risk 31 Roller skates 32 Top trumps 33 Yo-yo 34 Teenage mutant ninja 35 Chemistry Set 36 Twister...

Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Dave Arneson, whose fantasy role-playing game guided the socially awkward through adolescence, has rolled his last dice. Arneson, the Associated Press reports, died on Tuesday of cancer in St. Paul, Minn., at the age of 61. He and Gary Gary Gygax – who died last March -- invented D&D in 1974, and the game became a cult favorite among geeky teen boys, giving way, as ScientificAmerican.com tech editor Larry Greenemeier notes, to the nerd power of the 1980s embodied by Bill Gates. (It is also a favorite of a number of actors, including Vin Diesel, who...

Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Dave Arneson lost a long battle against cancer last night. The Escapist expresses its sincere condolences to the friends and family of Dave Arneson. In his youth, Arneson was fond of wargaming, specifically naval wargames. As a student of history, Arenson combined his passion for gaming with historical events, frequently running "what-if" scenarios for famous battles of ages past. His love for tabletop gaming led him to a fateful meeting at Gen Con in August 1969, where he met a young man named Gary Gygax. Together with Gygax, Arneson was responsible for co-creating the influential tabletop...

GM: OK, the bugbear attacks you. What do you do? OBAMA: I send one of my 672 henchmen after it. MCCAIN: OK, seriously. Why does he have so many henchmen? I'm a level 72 ranger and he's only a level 8 paladin. OBAMA: Well, if you'd bought the Grassroots Organizing and Oratory/Colgate Smile proficiencies you could min max it so that you... MCCAIN: Why is he even IN this campaign? I thought this was supposed to be a high level party. OBAMA: Well, maybe some people got tired of the grim and squinty "Matterhorn, son of Marathon" shtick you keep...

MILWAUKEE (AP) - The man who co-created the game Dungeons & Dragons and helped start the role-playing phenomenon is dead. Gary Gygax (GEYE'-gaks) died this morning at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, about 55 miles southwest of Milwaukee. His wife, Gail Gygax, says he had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm. Gygax and co-creator Dave Arneson developed the role-playing game in 1974 and it went on to become 1 of the best-selling games ever. Dungeons & Dragons is considered the grandfather of fantasy role-playing games and has influenced video games, books, movies and...

An avid Dungeons & Dragons player "became his fantasy" when he slashed his co-worker to death with a homemade sword in October 2004, his attorney said Wednesday. Defense attorney David Roby said his client, James Flemons, was in the throes of a schizophrenic episode on Oct. 27, 2004, and believed he was a ninja killing a foe when he attacked and killed his 43-year-old co-worker Anthony Williams. "He became his fantasy," Roby said. "He was a ninja doing an honorable thing with a person he perceived to be his confederate who he had a beef with." Roby contends Flemons, 32,...

Top Ten Additional Reasons the IDF Discriminates Against D&D Dorks By Ace and the unofficial staff of Ace of Spades HQ. 10. Errors in navigation caused by conflict between global positioning system and graph paper (David) 9. Insubordinate gamers often accuse their higher-level officers of "munchkinism" or of being "the DM's pet" (Dave from Garfield Ridge; adapted a little) 8. Too many jeep's wheels have been blown out due to running over a misplaced d4 (Ace) 7. Morele is hurt when players refer to others as "Non-Player Characters" (vonKreedon) 6. Insist on establishing a "marching order" with painted miniatures before...

Does the Israel Defense Forces believe incoming recruits and soldiers who play Dungeons and Dragons are unfit for elite units? Ynetnews has learned that 18-year-olds who tell recruiters they play the popular fantasy game are automatically given low security clearance. "They're detached from reality and suscepitble to influence," the army says. Fans of the popular role-playing game had spoken of rumors of this strange policy by the IDF, but now the army has confirmed that it has a negative image of teens who play the game and labels them as problematic in regard to their draft status....

remember exactly how it started: When I was a fifth grader, my mother encouraged me to read The Hobbit. So I did, and J. R. R. Tolkien's book filled my head with visions of wizards and warriors and dwarves and elves and goblins. A little while later, Mom drove me and a friend to a local toy store, where some guy was teaching kids to play a new game. It was called Dungeons & Dragons. This weekend marks D&D's 30th anniversary — Saturday is Worldwide D&D Game Day, and in a couple of weeks we'll see the publication of a...

All Christians know--or should--that their children are constantly the targets of SATANIC ASSAULT. This eye-opening, heart-rending expose' of the conspiracy to entrap our children in the death-spiral of the OCCULT will scare you. Hopefully into ACTION!

GREEN RONIN TO PUBLISH TESTAMENT CAMPAIGN SETTING Biblical Era to Come to Life for d20 Fans January 16, 2003—SEATTLE, WA: This April Green Ronin delves into the past with Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era. Part history, part mythology, Testament is the d20 System campaign setting that's both instantly familiar and yet unlike any game world you have ever experienced. "I conceived this product as an alternative to the current crop of fantasy worlds," says Green Ronin President Chris Pramas. "Really, how many more vaguely Tolkien-esque fantasy settings do we need?" Veteran RPG and computer game designer Scott Bennie...

GENEVA— The word spread like wildfire on role-playing websites Friday following the stunning news the Fantasy Gaming Institute had at long last engineered the heretofore unattainable 24-sided die. According to Eric Wallen, a 34-year old Radio Shack employee who's also an 18th level Mystical Elf known as Bilbo Bezzlebug with a +100 immunity to magic spells, the new invention is the greatest contribution to Dungeons and Dragons since the invention of Fiddle Faddle. "People used to say I was wasting my life with this role-playing stuff," Wallen said. "I can't believe how close I was to giving up my...