Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

Very interesting article, and a lengthy one at that, interviewing Roy Kuntz. Roy was a teenager in Lake Geneva, literally living alone in the family house, and got involved with Gary, D&D, and TSR as he grew older. He saw it all happen from an inside perspective, and as the saying goes, "he alone is left to tell the tale" as Gary and Dave Arneson are now both dead.

And it is one heck of a tale!

If you're interested in table top role-playing games, this is pretty much a must-read.

https://kotaku.com/dungeons-deceptions-the-first-d-d-players-push-back-1837516834

No, not rocket-propelled grenades, though that could make life interesting. We're talking role-playing games. Lots of good stuff in here: Traveler, Call of Cthulhu, Eclipse Phase, Night’s Black Agents, Firefly, etc. They’re mostly demo packs, but still an excellent overview of new RPGs that might be worth checking out.

I have no idea how much longer this free bundle will be running. Their web site has been getting slammed, so you might have to refresh your browser over time to get in and get the bundle.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=128081&it=1&SRC=Newsletter_FPW_CTArpg

I've played D&D before, somewhere I have most of the original white box set from the 70's. I've never much liked the game for a variety of reasons, my favorite game is Champions (superhero RPG), again, for a variety of reasons.

Well, the person who wrote this review has been playing and running for over 15 years, and he's written what seems to be a pretty fair first impression review of the system. It sounds like WotC has made two tremendous improvements in the game: first, the system has been smoothed out so that the different character classes are more uniform, second, and most important, they've made MAJOR improvements in the organization of the rule books. Everything the players need to know to run their characters is in the players handbook, everything the GM needs to know is in the GM guide. I've thought that D&D has been horribly organizaed since the beginning and always found this to be a major turn-off.

So congrats to D&Ders, sounds like you've got a lot of fun ahead. That doesn't mean that I'm running out to buy a copy and start running it, but if someone I knew started running it, I'd be more receptive to consider playing in a campaign.

http://www.gnomestew.com/specific-rpgs/a-gms-first-impressions-of-dnd-4e-looks-like-fun

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/07/1932233