More ass-kicking to come

This week Daniel was walking around having little adventures by himself and cackling to himself. I have learned that this usually means our group is going to catch some hell. I don't know what we have to do, but its going to be rough. We usually don't discuss D&D too much during the week, other than if my character needs to shop or I need him to tell me where to find stuff in one of his books. His cackling left me uneasy...

Gamers love their books. These books are hard-cover textbooks; the heart and soul of the game. They rely on them for order and logic. When a new rules book surfaces, gamers will make their way to the game store the day its released to the public because they have to plan the next campain adventure arond this new book. Many gamers get the info online before its even sold publicly and then buy the book for future reference because one day someone will ask a question or challenge a rule and they can't get to a computer - but the book will be there. There are discussion boards for groups who discuss these books to debate the nuances of each rule so that there is a "we're all on the same page" understanding. There are volumes and volumes of these books all with necessary information depending on your campaign setting. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TRY TO PLAY THIS GAME WITHOUT THE BOOKS. Without these books, the game goes to hell. Even with them it goes to hell sometimes. Players will try to use the books to rules-rape their way into a character who will in time be more powerful than super culinary/comedy god Anthony Bourdain, or sexy news god Keith Olbermann or hunky actor god Denzel Washington, or young up-and-coming-dancing-cutie god Chris Brown, or teen-alien god Jason Behr (I think I've made my point). Where was I??? Oh yeah, the books. If you don't follow the rules in the books, someone's head will explode. And no one wants that.

N-G Follow-Up

• Campaign - no, its not like politics. A role-playing campaign is a connected series of adventures played with the same characters. Its like a soap opera where the writers keep kicking people's asses on a regular basis. Only in the game, the GM is the writer and we get our asses kicked by NPCs.
• Rules-rape - yes, that is an overly harsh way of saying that someone is outrageously violating the rules to develop a super-powerful character. This does not make GMs happy and they will continue to kick everyone's characters' asses until the violator gets it in gear. This can be an agonizingly long time since the violators never think they're the problem and will usually argue with the GM, thus inviting more ass kickings.