Reply To: Dungeons & Dragons — Has Gerry been wrong all this time ??

[blinky465 17028xp 0]

I’m rather reminded of a discussion my wife and I had about Chicken Caesar Salad.
Who likes chicken caesar salad?
No, not like you get at the pub, or your local cafe – *real* caesar salad. With anchovies in it.

This is how this whole “minis aren’t for D&D” argument feels.

My wife insists that anchovies are an abomination in caesar salad and have no place in there. She’s wrong, of course. Sure, bacon adds the saltiness originally provided by the tiny little fishy fillets, and some people even say they prefer it. But that’s not how it was intended. But still, we have the discussion where she insists she is right, because only a maniac would want to put one of those nasty salty bone-riddled hairballs in their mouth, and I smile sweetly and let her have her “victory”.

But we both know that – no matter how much she insists I’m wrong for wanting anchovies in my caesar salad – her protestations are groundless. That’s how I always felt about the “D&D doesn’t have minis, it’s a game for the theatre-of-the-mind” argument.

Like insisting caesar salad should be lettuce, chicken and bacon, it’s now become such a widespread myth the some people actually prefer it, because it’s all they’ve ever known. The idea that it should be any other way – and, in particular, that it started out differently – is lost on them. But to insist it’s the “right and true” way?

Yep, we’ll play along, nodding sagely and agreeing that “of course there’s no fish in a caesar salad”.
But that’s just to keep the peace. Because, deep down, those who insist that their bastardised corruption of a classic is the one and only true way to make it, they know they’re wrong too.

(although, unlike caesar salad, where I quite like the corrupted version, I tried “theatre-of-the-mind” D&D a few times, at my then-gaming-groups insistence. It was shite.)