A Chess Master on D&D Edition Wars
One of my regular players had relatives in town this weekend and brought his cousin Debra to our Sunday game. She had played AD&D2e in college in the late 1980s and had a great time playing Serge (the NPC sergeant in charge of the hirelings). During breaks in the game we were talking about "old school" threads on some of the gaming boards where many seem to put down old school play as either "nostalgia" or some type of refusal to see the supposedly obvious improvements each new edition brings to the game. It turns out the Debra is a master-rated tournament chess player. She says the same thing happens in chess. A few of the proponents of a variant form of Chess championed by the late former World Champion Bobby Fischer are equally obnoxious about people who refuse to see the "obvious advantages" of Fischer's new chess. I guess all those people still playing the old chess instead of Fischer's new and improved version are playing it out of "nostalgia."
The Brown Box Dungeons and Dragons Goodies Cancer Fund Drive continues for a few more days (until midnight on February 15th). For more information on this giveaway and fund drive see this post: Brown Box Dungeons and Dragons Goodies Available (for Cancer Fund Donors).Lots of donated D&D items to give away in a very good cause.
February 15, 2010 at 9:49 AM
Ha! The thought of there being edition wars in the chess world amuses me to no end!
February 15, 2010 at 4:55 PM
Who would have thought it? I didn't even know there were "editions" in chess to fight over.
February 15, 2010 at 4:56 PM
You know.. there's a subculture fight in any group of 3+ humans. ;)
February 15, 2010 at 5:01 PM
Lucky thing there are only two of us here.
February 15, 2010 at 7:44 PM
> Lucky thing there are only two of us here.
Them's fighting words!
February 15, 2010 at 8:33 PM
You bastards! Three dimensional chess rules! Spock says so!
February 15, 2010 at 8:57 PM
Wasn't there some type of 4-D chess in a Star Trek novel? I think you could send pieces through time and they would pop in on a later turn. I remember this because McCoy managed to beat Spock.
February 25, 2010 at 5:56 PM
Chess has evolved slowly for a very long time - for my money it reached its peak with Shogi. Fischer was undoubtedly a unique genius and some of his criticisms of the game do strike home, in my view. But he didn't propose something unrecognisable.
Similarly, OSRIC takes the stand that some AD&D material is not needed and has struck it out.
These things are a long way from what WotC have done to D&D.
February 27, 2010 at 5:00 AM
I'm not an old schooler per say, but I share a love of the game. Glad to see your posts.
Adaen of Bridgewater
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