Like, gag me with a review

Hi,

So on my trip this weekend, I picked up a gag gift for Annie. I got her a copy of Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress by Shelly Mazzanoble. I figure, "heh, it'll be fun to snark on and good for a few laughs".

It's worse than you could ever imagine.

I don't know who this book is targeted at. I mean, ostensibly, it's meant to help ease more women into the game, but I feel like the only women it's speaking to are women who I would never, ever want to sit down at a gaming table with. Imagine if there was an episode of Sex in the City where the girls wanted to play D&D. I mean, you're thinking "Kim Cattrall -- Sexy Cleric, rar!", but you just know that when it comes time to actually play, you'll want to kill yourself because they're spending more time trying to find a backpack to compliment their armor than actually playing the game. And yes, there's a lengthy section where the author hits the marketplace and haggles over a name brand purse and clutch for her character. Oh and there are Cosmo-style quizzes to help you determine your race and class (by the way, on the race quiz? Half-orc isn't one of the possible quiz outcomes because, you know, half-orcs are ugly).

The other thing that I noticed (aside from pink! Pink! PINK!) is that she constantly compares some in-game thing to a real-life experience. Now, to some extent this can be a great way to explain certain concepts and if it's not the real-life experiences I'd use that's to be expected. And I now fully believe that 0-level spells are M&Ms. But this constant analogizing takes away from the important part of the game -- it's a fantasy adventure! You're exploring strange, dangerous places! You're fighting off evil monsters! You're wielding arcane powers! Don't just reduce it to a shopping trip at the mall and a desk job in the cubicle labyrinth with the Boss Minotaur.

I feel that women who might be attracted to D&D are much like men who might be attracted to D&D in that both of them consume fantasy media. Originally I was going to say that they read Fantasy/Sci-fi, but maybe they really like watching Buffy or anime or Heroes or the Lord of the Rings movies. But however they approach it, I feel like most D&D people have some interest in fantasy worlds. If all you ever read are Daneelle Steel novels, I'm betting that you probably won't care for D&D much. The book just swings wildly for an audience that couldn't care less about the topic and is flat-out insulting to the audience that would.

Ugh.

So. I am very, very, VERY sorry that I got this terrible, terrible book for my wife. I really do love her very much and this isn't some passive-abuse thing. I strongly encourage no one else to buy this piece of drek. I sincerely hope that a bunch of women gamers track down Ms. Mazzanoble and give her the chewing out she so richly deserves. If you're morbidly curious about it, I can arrange to lend you our copy, but I'm warning you, it's really awful.

later
Tom

[EDIT: My wife thinks it's a better book than I do. So perhaps I just "don't get it" what with being an "old fogey" and a "grumbling grognard". I still think it's pretty lame and even if there are people for whom it would resonate (and who would also not drive me nuts at the table), I'm not sure how it's going to get into their hands. Her suggestion is that it's a book for gamers to give to their SOs to get them interested. So perhaps. I hope she does do a post about her gamer-girl experiences since I'm curious to hear her elaborate on them.]

Like, gag me with a review

Hi,

So on my trip this weekend, I picked up a gag gift for Annie. I got her a copy of Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress by Shelly Mazzanoble. I figure, "heh, it'll be fun to snark on and good for a few laughs".

It's worse than you could ever imagine.

I don't know who this book is targeted at. I mean, ostensibly, it's meant to help ease more women into the game, but I feel like the only women it's speaking to are women who I would never, ever want to sit down at a gaming table with. Imagine if there was an episode of Sex in the City where the girls wanted to play D&D. I mean, you're thinking "Kim Cattrall -- Sexy Cleric, rar!", but you just know that when it comes time to actually play, you'll want to kill yourself because they're spending more time trying to find a backpack to compliment their armor than actually playing the game. And yes, there's a lengthy section where the author hits the marketplace and haggles over a name brand purse and clutch for her character. Oh and there are Cosmo-style quizzes to help you determine your race and class (by the way, on the race quiz? Half-orc isn't one of the possible quiz outcomes because, you know, half-orcs are ugly).

The other thing that I noticed (aside from pink! Pink! PINK!) is that she constantly compares some in-game thing to a real-life experience. Now, to some extent this can be a great way to explain certain concepts and if it's not the real-life experiences I'd use that's to be expected. And I now fully believe that 0-level spells are M&Ms. But this constant analogizing takes away from the important part of the game -- it's a fantasy adventure! You're exploring strange, dangerous places! You're fighting off evil monsters! You're wielding arcane powers! Don't just reduce it to a shopping trip at the mall and a desk job in the cubicle labyrinth with the Boss Minotaur.

I feel that women who might be attracted to D&D are much like men who might be attracted to D&D in that both of them consume fantasy media. Originally I was going to say that they read Fantasy/Sci-fi, but maybe they really like watching Buffy or anime or Heroes or the Lord of the Rings movies. But however they approach it, I feel like most D&D people have some interest in fantasy worlds. If all you ever read are Daneelle Steel novels, I'm betting that you probably won't care for D&D much. The book just swings wildly for an audience that couldn't care less about the topic and is flat-out insulting to the audience that would.

Ugh.

So. I am very, very, VERY sorry that I got this terrible, terrible book for my wife. I really do love her very much and this isn't some passive-abuse thing. I strongly encourage no one else to buy this piece of drek. I sincerely hope that a bunch of women gamers track down Ms. Mazzanoble and give her the chewing out she so richly deserves. If you're morbidly curious about it, I can arrange to lend you our copy, but I'm warning you, it's really awful.

later
Tom

[EDIT: My wife thinks it's a better book than I do. So perhaps I just "don't get it" what with being an "old fogey" and a "grumbling grognard". I still think it's pretty lame and even if there are people for whom it would resonate (and who would also not drive me nuts at the table), I'm not sure how it's going to get into their hands. Her suggestion is that it's a book for gamers to give to their SOs to get them interested. So perhaps. I hope she does do a post about her gamer-girl experiences since I'm curious to hear her elaborate on them.]

I'm the best there ever was

Hi,

So I want someone to do a cover of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", only instead of it being a fiddle contest, it's a theremin contest instead.

heh
Tom

I'm the best there ever was

Hi,

So I want someone to do a cover of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", only instead of it being a fiddle contest, it's a theremin contest instead.

heh
Tom

Comic Review

Hi,

So there's this 5-issue Marvel series out called "Super Villain Team-Up: Modok's Eleven".

It's up to issue 4 and I'm really enjoying the hell out of it.

It's pretty much what you'd expect: MODOK gets a bunch of third-rate Marvel villains together to try and pull off this massive heist.

There have been double-crosses, triple-crosses, and more to come. It's been a real hoot. I love stories like this because the bad guys can totally cut loose and because they keep screwing each over so much (and because the total body count has mostly been confined to other bad guys) it's easy to continue to root for them.

In general, I find bad guys more fun. In part because while most people are basically good, power is so very, very corrupting. If you had a super-power that you could exploit for some purpose besides helping other people out of the goodness of your heart, I doubt anyone I know could resist exploiting it a couple of times. So the ways in which villains abuse their powers is endlessly fascinating.

So this is really a pretty great little miniseries.

later
Tom

Comic Review

Hi,

So there's this 5-issue Marvel series out called "Super Villain Team-Up: Modok's Eleven".

It's up to issue 4 and I'm really enjoying the hell out of it.

It's pretty much what you'd expect: MODOK gets a bunch of third-rate Marvel villains together to try and pull off this massive heist.

There have been double-crosses, triple-crosses, and more to come. It's been a real hoot. I love stories like this because the bad guys can totally cut loose and because they keep screwing each over so much (and because the total body count has mostly been confined to other bad guys) it's easy to continue to root for them.

In general, I find bad guys more fun. In part because while most people are basically good, power is so very, very corrupting. If you had a super-power that you could exploit for some purpose besides helping other people out of the goodness of your heart, I doubt anyone I know could resist exploiting it a couple of times. So the ways in which villains abuse their powers is endlessly fascinating.

So this is really a pretty great little miniseries.

later
Tom