That was one of the funniest episodes of any show period. Everything was perfect. The narration, the alternate opening, Annie finding some Pegasi (that entire montage just made me lose it!), Britta and her Gnome.
Not to mention, other than an episode of Freaks and Geeks, it may have been the only accurate portrayal of a role-playing game on TV. Love this show!
Bottle episode!
I wish this had been a one-hour episode. I want more!
I thought it was great too. As good as the paintball episode.
Excellent. I loved how the changed the look of the credits for the episode and the twist with the narrator at the end.
Pierce was a little too dickish in this, to the point where I was wondering why Jeff didn’t just punch his lights out.
Troy taking notes while Annie described the extended sex (and apparantly, bondage) roleplay cracked me up, though.
On an semi-related note, as I settled in for NBC’s lineup, the lead in was Wheel of Fortune:
The final puzzle was JAZZ BAND, which made me wonder what would have happened had the contestant chosen J and Z but not A as his letters
Complete with the requisite asshole that ruins the game for everyone else.
I guess I’ll be the first to say that I thought it wasn’t one of the better episodes. I mean, I like a lot of it, but I didn’t laugh as much as in other episodes.
And I thought that Pierce was out of character mean. I don’t remember him being this bad in any other episode.
Pierce has always seemed so unstable that it’s seemed to me like he could go off like this at any moment. It wasn’t too surprising.
Hilarious episode, by the way. Chang’s character’s death and Annie’s montage were comedy gold.
Yeah, it was perfect that Chang was the most into it, and then he’s killed off early.
I wonder how Chang would have done as the bad guy. He’s crazier and a bigger dick than Pierce (usually).
I almost get the feeling they getting ready to get rid of Pierce. We’ve had two episodes in a row where he was out right hated by the rest of the group, with no “Oh, Pierce is okay” resolution at the end.
I am in the minority almost always with this show. The more over-the-top it is, the more people seem to like it. I enjoy the more subtle episodes. I walked away from this pretty quickly. I may give it another shot on hulu - from this thread it sounds like the back-end of the episode had some high points - but only as background noise as I’m programming.
Annie’s session with the elf maiden (not anymore) had me in tears.
I also loved the old school first edition (second cover) books.
It was the hand motions that had me rolling.
OK, I was wrong. This was way better than my original impression - I had fun with it.
I believe you could make out, “three . . . no four fingers, and . . .” 
Is it a bottle episode if they had to build Pierce that throne room? Which was awesome, by the way. And the slightly wild hair and glass of red wine totally made the scene.
I think Pierce was pretty consistent, actually. No one told him the kid was suicidal. Jeff was all mad and said he was seriously depressed, and by that time Pierce probably thought they were just saying stuff to exclude him. He is that egotistical: everything revolves around him. And come to think of it Reformed Buddhism probably doesn’t acknowledge depression as a real thing anyway. In any case, it’s just like him to hurl insults and try to ruin an activity because he feels like he’s being rejected.
I still can’t believe they did a D&D episode just showing people playing, without any imaginary scenes. It was amazing! And it totally worked. I think my favorite joke was Pierce saying he didn’t need a character sheet, and Abed capitulates, saying, “You come upon a naked 67-year-old man lying in the grass.” We were rolling at that one!
I was impressed that nobody bragged about having an 18 charisma or a +4 broadsword or something like that.
Although, the “Shapechange” spell probably should have been “Polymorph Any Object” or “Polymorph Other”, but I can understand the desire to steer away from the word “polymorph”.
I really enjoyed this one, it was well written and well done. Annie was awesome of course.
Was not! Close to a Bottle Episode but several things happened outside the room. More than a Bottle Episode would have. Also I have no issues with Bottle Episodes myself. I love Barney Miller and most of the show was in the Bottle if you will.
The credits pulled me in immediately, I was fearful of where they would go with a D&D game but the opening made me hopeful and they more than delivered. I loved the narrator being the cleaning lady.
Yes to both of these, clearly one of the writers is/was an older gamer. I thought all the 1st Ed stuff was a little out of place though. I mean I still use it but I’m over 40, Most people use 3rd or 4th Editions. I would think a 20-something would be using a much newer version. (minor nitpick though)
My wife made me save this one on Tivo so she can go back and rewatch it a few times to get all the jokes. I was rolling, and she kept saying “This is a geek thing, right?”
I lost it when Annie started talking about “…takes out his large endowment…” and her expression during the “three…no, four fingers” bit.