Two weeks ago, the phrase “British Nerd” was relatively pleasant to me. I’d picture David Tennant, or Richard Ayoade, or even Hermione Granger, and everything was fine. “Oh,” I’d think, “Perhaps they’d like to discuss Neil Gaiman for a while!” Not now though. Now I picture a guy sitting alone at a restaurant, his waiter sending out every available physical signal of “I’m busy” as this lone man asks for the third time if she’s sure they don’t have mead, much as they did 700 years ago when this very building was the most prolific mead-hall in all of Pevensey. This book is called Fantasy Wargaming: The Highest Level of All. It’s got a game in there if you hate games and fun.
System Mastery 
I think a system with a lot of rolled stats could be pretty neat, as long as you get to assign them afterward. Fifteen dice rolls means you’re almost guaranteed to get some good numbers and some bad numbers, so you’ll get to be the class you want and you can have some fun picking out some dump stats.
Not so much when you roll stats in order. Doubly not so much when any class requires at least two (specific) good stats to function. I don’t know why he ever thought this system was supposed to create fun or functional character.
Rabid unicorns fucking virgins: Just another Tuesday night.
I think I blacked out for a while when you started describing combat rules. All I know is it started, then suddenly I’d lost 20 minutes from my day.
Hey, guys. Awesome show. You familiar with a game called Paranoia? It’s the first RPG I ever encountered. Would LOVE to hear your take on it. I can email you a pdf if you’re interested.
I live near Cambridge and work in town (I can JUST about see the University Library from my office). I promise there’s some great gaming in Cambridge now! Off the top of my head: at Heffer’s Book Shop on Trinity Street, at least once a month, they keep the shop open late and have a game night – loads of board games, some RPGs (if there are GMs available!) and the comic shop on Homerton Street runs a fair number of games, too. I generally go to the comic shop in Huntingdon, though, since I find it easier to get to by car (and cheaper parking!).
According to one of my more experienced RPG buddies, Tunnels & Trolls was pretty popular because it was basically D&D, only cheaper. Apparently, they pretended it was because D&D was overhyped, but it really was just the fact that T&T cost less.
Also, it’s the Duke of York… no “shire”. Somebody wrote a song about him, you may have heard of it?
Purgatory has a basis in scripture, long before indulgences and like were introduced.
Hooking on to a random weird detail: God is a Leo? Considering his obsession with the subject it’s odd he didn’t know that Leo is the star sign for rebellion and beasts and as such is the star sign most closely associated with Satan.
One other thing about the Fritz Leiber potshot you guys highlighted in the book is that not only is the author missing the point of fantasy fiction, he’s also missing a pretty obvious joke. It’s gotten a bit muddled as the idea of a thieves’ guild has become just a commonplace and unquestioned element in fantasy fiction but Leiber including a thieves’ guild in his stories rather than just a syndicate or a powerful gang was supposed to be an, at the time, pretty blatant joke about just how guild-happy the citizens of Lankhmar were: There were so many guilds operating in the city that even something as ridiculous as criminals had formally recognized guilds!
It’s like watching old Looney Tunes shorts and exclaiming “In the real world a Road Runner wouldn’t be able to enter a tunnel that was just painted on a wall; Sorry Chuck :smugface:”
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