Gary Gygax for President

It's a little weird how D&D gets mixed in with Presidential campaigns. During the 2008 election, criticism was made of a religious story McCain told about his POW experience that greatly resembled a story from a book he was fond of about prisoners in the Gulag. Micheal Goldfarb, in response, commented on the "basement-dwelling pro-Obama Dungeons and Dragons crowd" for bringing this criticism up. A good apology followed, "If my comments caused any harm or hurt to the hard working Americans who play Dungeons & Dragons, I apologize. This campaign is committed to increasing the strength, constitution, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma scores of every American." However, the "pro-Obama Dungeons and Dragons Crowd" reference was used again almost immediately after.

If there wasn't a pro-Obama Dungeons and Dragons Crowd before the comment, there certainly was after. Wizards of the Coast sent a response to the McCain campaign, pointing out the remarks were disparaging, the number of military personnel who play, and Hasbro's donation of crates of product to support GIs across the globe. A Facebook group, named the Pro-Obama Dungeons and Dragons Crowd started and had several hundred followers (archived here) I was one of the administrators of said group.

McCain may have lost his opposed Charisma check with Obama, but the presidential D&D references continue in the 2012 campaign. Mitt Romney is shown courting votes at an RPGA convention on Saturday Night Live:

Go to 3:03 if you don't want to see the whole thing. We've also have some character sheets for numerous candidates here and here. Enjoy!

The Avengers, D&D style

OK, I've been away for a LOOOONG time. I've moved into a house that needs lots of rehabilitation in another city, and had to find new jobs in said city (Kansas City, in fact). All that takes time and attention, in the meantime there has been a lot going on in D&D culture. I'll try to catch us up.

The Avengers movie is the surprise smash hit of the summer. Naturally, we have D&D versions of the Avengers crew appearing.Here are some from Malaysian artist The Durrrian (that's with three Rs, right?) You can read more about it<\ here on io9. I don't know what's cooler, Iron Man as a wizard, Captain America as a warforged, or the Black Widow looks perfectly at home in D&D garb (Shadar-Kai?)  The last three images come from Black Panther artist Francesco Francavilla for Comictwart.com, reimagining the Avengers in the Age of Discovery including Hulk as a Druid.