# Sheldon plays D&D with girls!



## Imhotepthewise (May 10, 2013)

This was awesome. Thoroughly enjoyable. Hope you DVR'd it if you couldn't see it live.


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## Mark CMG (May 10, 2013)

Comedy Gold!


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## Wycen (May 10, 2013)

I only caught the last 10 minutes, so from my point of view, they were playing a d20 homebrew using portions of the BoEF or a related netbook.


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## Blackwarder (May 10, 2013)

Watching it right now, I want Hayward to be my DM!

Warder


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## Ed_Laprade (May 10, 2013)

Saw the promo for this just before it aired, after Jeopardy!. Playing D&D with the girls? Even though I don't normally watch the show, I was in for this. Then came this from Sheldon: "Play D&D with girls? We've never done that before. Nobody has." Well, screw them! As hardcore D&Ders living living in LA there's no fraking way even he could be that ignorant. So I didn't watch it, and won't. The person who posted the thread about them laughing at us was almost right. They aren't just laughing at us, they're _sneering_ at us!


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## Vyvyan Basterd (May 10, 2013)

Ed_Laprade said:


> Saw the promo for this just before it aired, after Jeopardy!. Playing D&D with the girls? Even though I don't normally watch the show, I was in for this. Then came this from Sheldon: "Play D&D with girls? We've never done that before. Nobody has." Well, screw them! As hardcore D&Ders living living in LA there's no fraking way even he could be that ignorant. So I didn't watch it, and won't. The person who posted the thread about them laughing at us was almost right. They aren't just laughing at us, they're _sneering_ at us!




OMG!!! A character from podunk Nebraska had a misconception about D&D players! What a world...

Haven't watched it yet, but I bet Penny plays and finds it fun. Just like she mocked MMOs and then went way overboard when she discovered how fun they were.


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## Olgar Shiverstone (May 11, 2013)

Comedy gold.  Loved the "Vegas" take on rolling a d20.


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## Ed_Laprade (May 11, 2013)

Vyvyan Basterd said:


> OMG!!! A character from podunk Nebraska had a misconception about D&D players! What a world...
> 
> Haven't watched it yet, but I bet Penny plays and finds it fun. Just like she mocked MMOs and then went way overboard when she discovered how fun they were.



C'mon, even I know he's from Texas. But he, and most of his friends (all three of them) work at Caltech, and have for at least six years. So I stand by my statement. 
But I wouldn't be surprised if you're right about Penny's reaction. Kaley is the best thing on the show. I have no idea why so many (YouTubers) don't find her funny. Here's a hint guys, look _up_ once in awhile. Her expressions are priceless! (I have seen a bunch of clips, mostly because of her.)


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## Vyvyan Basterd (May 11, 2013)

Ed_Laprade said:


> C'mon, even I know he's from Texas.




Penny's the one in the commercial that said no one ever had, not Sheldon. She's ribbing her friends, which is even funnier since she's the one dating a geek.

Agree on Kaley. I've liked her since Charmed.


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## Morrus (May 11, 2013)

Ed_Laprade said:


> C'mon, even I know he's from Texas. But he, and most of his friends (all three of them) work at Caltech, and have for at least six years. So I stand by my statement.
> But I wouldn't be surprised if you're right about Penny's reaction. Kaley is the best thing on the show. I have no idea why so many (YouTubers) don't find her funny. Here's a hint guys, look _up_ once in awhile. Her expressions are priceless! (I have seen a bunch of clips, mostly because of her.)




After Sheldon says "We've never played D&D with girls before", Penny answers "No-one has, sweetie."  It was her, not Sheldon, who said the line that got you so angry. 

Overall, I think it was a fairly sympathetic portrayal of D&D.  They looked to be having fun. Though nobody rolled under 15 the whole game.


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## Richards (May 11, 2013)

And for those unfamiliar with the characters' backgrounds, Penny is from Nebraska - hence Vyvyan Basterd's comment above.

Johnathan


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## knottyprof (May 11, 2013)

Missed this episode (maybe catch in onDemand later).  Honestly, any main stream media acknowledgement of the game or even RPG genre is a good thing, even if it is done in a mocking way.  After all it is just a game.  Is there a culture or sub-culture connected to it?  Sure, just like MMO gamers or other social groups where people get together to share their interests.  But it is still just a game, a means for people to share an experience of make believe where they can pretend to be something more, a means to escape from the duldroms of normal life.  But anymore it is big business where even companies like Hasbro can cash in.  So if a mainstream comedy comprised of archetypical nerds and geeks wants to use a game I have grown up with and spent a lot of time playing and thinking about as a plot line, all I have to say is Thank You for acknowledging my interest.

Honestly, would you rather see a bunch of 20 somethings sitting around playing the game and making fun of it or Tom Hanks wandering a sewer system thinking he is really in some sort of fantasy dungeon.  Just goes to show how a societies views can change over time from a game that was perceived as satanic and players were thinly veiled devil worshippers to one where the game can elicit jokes and stereotyped as the domain of geeks and nerds.


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## Rune (May 11, 2013)

knottyprof said:


> Honestly, would you rather see a bunch of 20 somethings sitting around playing the game and making fun of it or Tom Hanks wandering a sewer system thinking he is really in some sort of fantasy dungeon.




Mazes & Monsters.  Hands down.  I've gotten lots of great gaming-inspiration from that movie.  The Big Bang Theory?  Not so much.


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## Ed_Laprade (May 11, 2013)

Morrus said:


> After Sheldon says "We've never played D&D with girls before", Penny answers "No-one has, sweetie."  It was her, not Sheldon, who said the line that got you so angry.
> 
> Overall, I think it was a fairly sympathetic portrayal of D&D.  They looked to be having fun. Though nobody rolled under 15 the whole game.



I stand corrected! By both of you. Will have to watch it then. I have watched a few, and must give props to the one where they were stranded in the desert in full Trek costumes. It was well handled, and I was impressed.


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## Serpine (May 11, 2013)

Morrus said:


> Though nobody rolled under 15 the whole game.



Yeah, I kept rooting for a 1 almost every time the dice got thrown, just to see how it would be handled, for instance "I rolled a  1? What does that mean" "It means you hit Sheldon." "Oh... Cool!" 

I was really feeling for Howard with the increasing demands for silly voices. I've been there: You ham it up a bit when you start DMing a session and next thing you know you can't even drop down a random kobold without some expectation of theatrics.


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## El Mahdi (May 11, 2013)

deleted


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## knottyprof (May 12, 2013)

Just watched onDemand and the episode was awesome.  Only complaint was the idea that the DM makes all the rolls.  Where the heck does this idea come from?  I think they did the same thing in the Community episode a year or two back.  I have never played in a game where the DM made all the rolls.

I want to know what chart Sheldon and Amy were using at the end, I don't think it is in the Player's handbook of any edition.


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## Mark CMG (May 12, 2013)

Morrus said:


> Overall, I think it was a fairly sympathetic portrayal of D&D.  They looked to be having fun.





Indeed.  And it showed how to double the size of your group of players.


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## Morrus (May 12, 2013)

knottyprof said:


> I want to know what chart Sheldon and Amy were using at the end, I don't think it is in the Player's handbook of any edition.




There was no chart.


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## knottyprof (May 12, 2013)

Morrus said:


> There was no chart.




ya think?  It was a bit of a rhetorical statement.  

There is a 3rd party 3.5 book that might actually have such a chart, but I don't think I would want to play in a campaign where that particular resource would be used.


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## Vyvyan Basterd (May 12, 2013)

knottyprof said:


> Only complaint was the idea that the DM makes all the rolls.  Where the heck does this idea come from?




It was a suggested method in 1E AD&D and maybe Basic. The idea being that every roll reveals meta-game (no, they didn't use that term) information. I'd seen one game played that way back in the day, but never ran or played in a game where all rolls were made by the DM. I did make some rolls in secret for the players when the occassion seemed to warrant it in 1E.


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## delericho (May 12, 2013)

knottyprof said:


> Only complaint was the idea that the DM makes all the rolls.  Where the heck does this idea come from?




We did that for years, basically because that was how my first DM did it, and I therefore assumed it was just the way things were done. It wasn't until I went on to university that I encountered the notion that players should roll.


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## NewJeffCT (May 12, 2013)

knottyprof said:


> Just watched onDemand and the episode was awesome.  Only complaint was the idea that the DM makes all the rolls.  Where the heck does this idea come from?  I think they did the same thing in the Community episode a year or two back.  I have never played in a game where the DM made all the rolls.
> 
> I want to know what chart Sheldon and Amy were using at the end, I don't think it is in the Player's handbook of any edition.




I was just going to post that as well - is that some sort of California/Hollywood/West Coast thing?  The DM makes the rolls for the players?  I said on my Facebook page that if I demanded I roll all the dice as DM, my players would have thrown their dice at me - hard.  My die-rolling luck is so bad, that we'd probably still be in combat from that attack in the goblin's lair from 2007.  (And, yes, I remember that episode of Community, too, "I won at Dungeons & Dragons - and it was Advanced!")


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## NewJeffCT (May 12, 2013)

Howard did a great job with the imitations, though.  Nicolas Cage & Al Pacino were spot-on, while Christopher Walken wasn't bad, either.  I've had a few DMs that did imitations like that, but he would never say, "the face on the tree looks like Nicolas Cage" and then do a Cage impression.  He would have just described the face in the tree and launched into the impression and you could guess it was Nic Cage, but it would never be said at the table.  (This one DM had a great recurring NPC that nobody figured out was an elderly Charlton Heston for months, and I had a snobbish nobleman NPC that was based on Charles Emerson Winchester from MASH)


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## knottyprof (May 12, 2013)

I agree, the imitations were hilarious and Sheldon's response to them were just as funny.  I know I am bias based off of the content of the episode but IMO one of the best episodes of the season.  Only complaint I have is it looks like they were using 4th edition (my least favorite edition of the game).


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## El Mahdi (May 12, 2013)

deleted


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## Vyvyan Basterd (May 12, 2013)

NewJeffCT said:


> I was just going to post that as well - is that some sort of California/Hollywood/West Coast thing?  The DM makes the rolls for the players?  I said on my Facebook page that if I demanded I roll all the dice as DM, my players would have thrown their dice at me - hard.




Well, according to the 1E DMG p. 110:

"In many situations it is correct and fun to have the players dice such things as melee hits and saving throws. However, it is your right to control the dice at any time and to roll dice for the players."

So, you could point to this and remind them you have the *right* to roll their dice for them before they throw their dice at you.


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## Super Pony (May 12, 2013)

Here is a Link to "The Love Spell Potential" episode on CBS.com for those who may not have access to it through their DVRs, etc.


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## NewJeffCT (May 12, 2013)

Vyvyan Basterd said:


> Well, according to the 1E DMG p. 110:
> 
> "In many situations it is correct and fun to have the players dice such things as melee hits and saving throws. However, it is your right to control the dice at any time and to roll dice for the players."
> 
> So, you could point to this and remind them you have the *right* to roll their dice for them before they throw their dice at you.




ah, so I can say that I'm such a generous DM that I allow them to roll their own dice.


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## Ed_Laprade (May 12, 2013)

I was miffed at the 'DM makes all the rolls' too, but remembered it as an option, or whatever, from 1e. Not that we would ever have allowed it! But this is to point out that not all the rolls were 15+. The very last roll we heard about was a 14. More to the point, there were obviously a buttload of rolls that we didn't see. But yeah, it would have been nice to see the general reaction to some bad ones. Other than Amy's.


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## Mark CMG (May 12, 2013)

No damage rolls.  They seem to have chosen to skirt the issue of damage and damage descriptions.


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## Crothian (May 13, 2013)

I remember seeing DMs roll all the dice in the 80's and beyond.  There was even a DM doing it last year at Gen Con that I saw so while rare it didn't suprise.  They obviously made many changes to how people really play to make it run better for an audience and to keep is short and to the point.


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## EricNoah (May 13, 2013)

It was an awesome episode all the way around.


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## Dog Moon (May 15, 2013)

Mark CMG said:


> No damage rolls.  They seem to have chosen to skirt the issue of damage and damage descriptions.




Although from what I can remember, weren't most of those rolls on creatures that were pretty much already dead anyway but needed that FINAL hit?  Like when the Dragon comes out of the lava.  It probably only had like 3 hit points remaining and at that point my group doesn't bother rolling for damage either.  The Dragon just dies.


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## Gfreak2x9 (May 15, 2013)

My favorite part was when she yelled "YES! 14!!!" I just about died! lmao


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## Hishen (Jul 27, 2013)

any how i liked that episode... so damn funny


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## GM_Chris (Jul 28, 2013)

Downloading it now. 
I saw the youtube videos, I really like the idea of a GM playing a Nick Cage style character.


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## sabrinathecat (Jul 28, 2013)

I'd rather watch "The Gamers", "THe Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising", "Journey Quest", or "Standard Action". At least those are written and performed by people who actually know something about gaming.


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