Men in Gorilla Suits

You leave Radigast City at the break of dawn, traveling north until reaching an unnamed river. For days, the water is your guide as lush earth gives way to dreary moors and tangled thickets. Finally, in the distance, you see a white plume of smoke rising from a mountain in the distance.

Two miles from the volcano, you find a suitable cave in which to store your supplies.

"Dead Knoll's Eye Socket," your guide says. "This is where I take leave. Good luck."

With your traveling gear stored safely away, you make your way along unsettled the land, being careful to avoid any fissures venting steam. Levi, the party's thief, is the first to hear the mountain breathing. Once you all hear it, you realize it comes in a cycle: a thirty-second exhale of heat followed by a half minute of calm. The cave your guide said to seek now lies before you, about eight feet in diameter.

Suddenly, the whooshing breath of White Plume Mountain almost knocks you over. The torch Bautigan the Brave readied is extinguished by the blast of air. You have thirty seconds before the next wave of wind and steam comes your way.

What do you do?

Dungeons and Dragons. In the 80s, many claimed it was a tool of Satan. Today, it's a mainstream staple of pop culture. It's also this week's topic of Men in Gorilla Suits...

* * *

We roll initiative and discuss when we first became aware of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). After that, we talk about when we played...and if we still play today.

We talk about why D&D has endured for 45 years...and how technology has affected the game in recent years.

Because we are geeks, we devote some time to our favorite D&D monsters, player classes, and races.

We mentioned the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, which many claimed was the worst thing about D&D. It never came to be (because there was nothing to worry about), but that doesn't stop us from chatting about the worst thing playing D&D can do to a person.

Dungeons and Dragons has become a pop culture staple, and we talk about our favorite appearance of the game in something we've watched or listened to.

And we wrap up this episode with two things:

  1. Our favorite D&D memories.
  2. What the future holds for D&D

Direct download: migs265.mp3
Category:Pop Culture -- posted at: 3:18pm CDT