Annotated 21-4
Nibbled to death by ducks!
The title’s definitely a Phil creation, and it’s one of the most game-metaphorical of our titles: it primarily means the dreaded worst possible outcome of a single move in a D&D-style RPG. Only at the very end of the story does another, slightly strained meaning for “natural one” emerge, as we’re reminded that ONE of our characters is particularly close to NATURE.
I’m kind of amazed that dice-rolling terms like this continue to be familiar enough in geek culture to be usable; I figured we’d all be electronic-game-exclusive by now and the term would be like the word “dialing,” slowly falling into disuse as it was untethered from our present technological reality. I guess twenty-siders and being in the same room are more of the fun than I realized.
Mighty kind of the fellow on the left to hold his friends’ axes whilst they prepare to defenestrate ol’ Bragga there.
I don’t think they’re going to carry him far enough to defenestrate him, since the closet thing to a window even visible is the arrow slits in that tower.
The first paragraph ends abruptly mid-sentence. What happens at the end of the story?
I’m never in the same room as my D&D/M&M groups, but dice are still a thing. >_>
Whoops! Fixed that…
As long as there are dice-bots, there will be dice.
They really are. There’s just something BETTER about A. Being all there and able to bask in each other’s energy during it, and B. holding your destiny in your hand as the math rocks fall. The computer may be efficient but it’s never as personal.
Language is prone to anachronisms. Even if no one had dice anymore we’d still say “rolling”. Most electronic die rolling apps roll virtual dice.
I guess we’ll see what happens in a generation, but I’m just in my 30’s and much of the formative stage of my geek culture development was during the time of dial-up internet and well pre-WoW. There’s something special about the energy that comes from role playing in person. I have tried videoing in for my monthly game but I will always choose the 75 minute drive to play in person. I live in rural Canada, and finding a D&D group that gets the time constraints of a parent with a career and also has progressive attitudes is more challenging than you might think.
If Wizards worked with D&D Beyond to set up a VR 5e system, I would buy a headset immediately.