Coding and Roleplaying: Is there a connection?

[Mr. Analog]

Here's a funny little article from Slashdot that asks the question: Is there a connection between Coding and Roleplaying?

[Darren Dirt]

Donut Cores and Forgotten Rums



http://www.candlekeep.com/library/rumors/rumor7.htm

This email was sent to the REALMS-L mailing list on 14th July 2002 by Sean K Reynolds, once an employee of Wizards of the Coast and working on numerous Forgotten Realms products. Sean was heavily involved in the Forgotten Realms production and development. This posting to the mailing list is a non-linked response to a members review of The Silver Marches. Make of it what you will...



This is a story about the elves who work in Gameland. The elves write recipe books ... two kinds of books in particular: books about Donut Cores, and books about Forgotten Rums. The Donut Core books had a lot of recipes (the elves called many-recipe books "crunchy books" for a reason that is too long to relate here), and gave a lot of suggestions about things you could make with Donut Cores, but didn't have a lot of history and interesting descriptions of where the Donut Cores came from, their history, or famous people who used Donut Cores. The Forgotten Rums books were less crunchy, but had the stories behind the Rum recipes, history of where the Rums come from, and information on the people who make those Rums. Still, the elves knew that a lot of people like the Donut Core books and a lot of people like the Forgotten Rums books, so they continued to make both kinds.



Unfortunately, the elves are ruled by a foolish but powerful race called the Bean-Counters. The Bean-Counters are are only concerned with beans. Not fun, not adherence to the old ways, just beans. The more beans, the better. They didn't even soak the beans before they ate them ... they liked things crunchy.



...



And so the elves were released, and they went back to their tree-houses and hill-houses. They wept and prayed, for they knew the Forgotten Rums were at stake, and they knew that the people who bought Forgotten Rums books would never understand why the books were changed if they failed the test of the Bean-Counters.



They sent out a silent wish that people would like and buy The Sliver Munches. They hoped that people would talk about the things they liked about The Sliver Munches, which would encourage other people to take a look at it. And they hoped that people interested in The Sliver Munches would pick it up in the first three months after the book was released, for the Bean-Counters carefully watch those first 90 days and virtually ignore the rest. The doom of the Forgotten Rums was nigh, and only quick interest in a quality book could save it.

...Discovered via a link from this /. discussion.



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Ironically enough, on the wizards.com website there's a link to a "Dungeon Room Description Generator", not sure what to say about that.



[Mod: Merge'd]