I’m feeling down in the dumps now because my D&D group just had a big falling out over rules lawyering.
I’ve tried to conceal it all my life, but once in a blue moon my inner geek manifests itself into the biggest bucktoothed, taped horn rim glasses-bearing, high-water pants wearing, whiniest nasal voice possible geek monster. I’m too embarassed to say what the argument was about. It’s that stupid.
So can you guys cheer me up and talk about your biggest geek arguments so I won’t feel like I’m the only one in the world?
What animal it was Kekule said he saw in a dream to give him the idea for the structure of benzene. I said that it was a snake (Oroborous, if you like) while my brother insisted it was something else. I was right, of course.
Actually, a lot of the conversations and arguments in my house were and are fairly geeky.
Back in 1992, way WAY prior to Kevin Smith’s Jersey movies, I stood in line for the Chicago Comic-Con behind two individuals who argued for a full half-hour while we waited for the doors to open.
The topic?
Whether or not Lois and Superman could ever conceive a child. And I swear this is true…the one guy finally surmised that only Wonder Woman could ever carry his kid.
I got chills when Mallrats came out, and basically contained the same argument.
For what it’s worth, there was no talk of a Kryptonite condom or a load “like a shotgun.” But it was close enough to make me smile.
Hell, those two lifelong virgins in front of me in line are probably still arguing it. :rolleyes:
The great Larry Niven wrote a definitive essay in 1971. Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex I suspect your geeks and Kevin Smith were using the same source.
I am the truest of the geek; I know just enough to sound dorky to nonD&D people and not enough to truly hang with the elite D&D. sigh…
My son downloaded two of the coolest, funniest D&D spoofs from Dr. Demento…I’ll have to have him give me a link for you…because I’m SO much of a loser that I’m not even good at that…or someone will beat me to the punch and post them.
Our dumbest argument was about one player who insisted on rolling his dice behind his cupped hand…coincidentally, this habit brought him “luck,” and he rolled really well all the time. Of course, he’d pick up the dice before we, or the DM, could see them. hmmmmm…whaddya think?
Twenty minutes of senseless debate on the right to privacy before the DM decided HE would roll everyone’s dice for everything. Just another example of one person ruining things for everyone else.
I was present at the game (we were playtesting Steve Perrin’s Superheroes rules for GURPS) when we found a flaw in the GURPS rules.
If somebody fell a certain distance (more than five yards, I believe), they took 1d6-2 for every yard they fell, so a reasonably tough person could fall 10-15 yards and survive; with heavy boots on, they could fall that far and walk away from it.
However, whatever they landed on took 1d6 of damage for every 10 pounds for every 10 yards it fell, so a 200 pound person leaping out of a 4th floor window would do 20d6 of damage to the thing he landed on, which is sufficient to destroy a tank (particularly through the top armor); you could practically vaporize an aircraft carrier by dropping a 10 pound weight onto it as the carrier sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge…
The rule was changed in the next edition of the game.
My roommate and I had a HUGE argument about Farscape last year.
Him: “Okay, so if John and Aeryn DO have this baby, how is it going to survive if she’s cold-blooded and he’s warm-blooded?”
Me: “Then the baby willl probably be born with one or the other! It’s genetics, you idiot!”
Him: “But we don’t even know how Sebaceans give birth! All we know is that she had to have the fetus released from stasis! For all we know, the kid could come out of her nose!”
Me: “So what if it does?? Look, the two species are NOT all that different! I’m sure they’ll find a way to reconcile them! A Sebacean can mate with a Luxon, right? That’s how D’Argo got Jothy! And a Sebacean and a human are a HELL of a lot closer than a Luxon and a Sebacean! It’s not like Aeryn mated with Rygel! (For those who don’t watch, Rygel is a Muppet). I don’t see what the big deal is here!”
Him: “It just doesn’t make sense!”
Me: “You write for a damn SOAP OPERA, and you’re bitching about something not making sense?”
(I think I won that one…now we’re both just anxiously awaiting Peacekeeper War in December, and we’ve stopped arguing about how the baby will be born.)
Any argument about mathematics.
Any argument about the definition of a word.
What, exactly, is the definition of “breakfast” - this lasted c. 11 months.
…recently with a family member about whether Gandalf meets up with Radagast the Brown before or after Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin show up at the Prancing Pony.
I argued with Ardred about whether a tidal wave and a tsunami are the same thing. Turns out we were miscommunicating and both agreed with each other.
I’ve had many arguments about D&D, and our group had a falling out for a while about the DM not letting us do our own thing (we had to follow one character the whole time, and if we decided to do our own thing, our characters were ignored) and interpretations of rules.
Remember, when it comes to rule ambiguity, the DM has last say.
I argued for days and days on a Dune message board about whether or not Paul Muad’Dib had access to “other memory” in the Bene Gesserit sense of the word (a quote from the novel eventually proved this was indeed true) and whether or not that other memory included male ancestors (never resolved).
I don’t know, I might be able to at least make it to co-Queen. I have had arguments about warp core ventilation, Movie Supergirl vs. Comic Supergirl, construction and use of Jedi scuba ventilators, the One Power vs. the True Power (not to mention the effects of Balefire on any population–that one took days), the origin of Wolverine (solved by me going to the damned comic store for proof), the likelihood of any half-brained vampire being dumb enough to meet the eyes of a 4th gen Malkavian with a 6 dominate, and, the crowning glory, the now-infamous Han vs. Luke argument that began in October, 1994 and continues to this day.
I can remember an agrument in which a friend of mine and I had over a steak dinner at a local eatery not too long ago. We were debating on the soloing ability of the Wizard Class in Everquest and how that has hurt the class in its desireability in the grouping aspect of the game. His point was that Sony/Verant (makers of EQ) had designed a class that was not suited for grouping with other players. My point is that they were a perfectly viable grouping class and it was the perception of them being useless that made them undesirable.
We had this argument for about 2 hours and didn’t even touch our steaks until we finally finished. This was in a crowded and fairly quiet restaurant as well. People must of thought us mad.
Holy crap. I’m floored by that link, JThunder. Plus style points for documentation actually existing on the SDMB. I am demoting myself to Princess Geek.
Draelin, you can be co-Princess Geek. Together, we will rule the internet! At least, the part of the internet that worships geek princesses, which I suspect is actually quite large.
