This analogy was too good to let slip by.

Quote from: ostap bender;859464in other news i think that dcc is now my prefered go to d&d family member. as someone noted: if d&d is family and od&d is great-grandfather than dcc is weird uncle with cool stories that hang out around haight ashbury in 60s.

OD&D is the elderly great-grandfather who apparently makes no sense, though the elders all nod sagely at his ramblings and every now and then put things into context for you.

Holmes Basic is the great-uncle who no one talks about. You've met him a couple of times and he seems like an OK guy. But you don't know what's the deal with him. He looks a lot like great-gramps.

1e is the stern, micromanaging grandfather with a shelf full of leatherbound books dutifully lecturing you on the importance of timekeeping and the risk of disease.

B/X is the great-uncle who takes you to the zoo and buys you candy.

From the very serious, running-the-family-business 1e family tree:

2e is the uncle who stayed with his mother when she and 1e divorced. People still resent him for this, which is why he almost never gets invited to family reunions.

3e is your super annoying uncle who got rich in the 2000s. No longer as affluent as he was in his heyday, what "with the economy and all" but still going on strong.

Castles & Crusades is 3e's kid (3e has like, a TON of kids), who looks a lot like grandpa (1e), considers him a role model, but never did live up to gramp's exacting expectations.

OSRIC is also 3e's kid and C&C's twin. Looks and acts exactly like a younger version of his grandfather. Which is exactly how gramps likes it.

4e is your League of Legends-addicted cousin on Ritalin. He's not a bad kid, just... broadcasting on a different frequency.

5e is your really sweet kid cousin. Everyone dotes on her and gifts her their old stuff from back when they were a kid, books and comics and toys, and she's always totally psyched.

From the totally insane B/X family tree:

LL is as carefree and cool as his dad, possibly even more so.

LotFP is B/X's adolescent kid who's obsessed with Scandinavian black metal and Italian horror movies.

ACKS is B/X's honors student kid who shocked everyone by getting into the Army after majoring in History (or is it the other way around? You're never really sure) and now teaches at West Point.

DCC is B/X's pothead kid. A bit like LotFP only more of a 1970s hard rock and 1950s B-movies kind of guy.

The above is, of course, completely influenced by my own view of each of these games.

I heard a rumor that DCC is a swinger and owns the Midwest's largest collection of Planet of the Apes memorabilia.

Scarlet Heroes is the guy who likes to travel in wild places in Southeastern Asia, by himself, and is tough enough to handle it.
But it's a great guy to trade stories with when other people are cutting you off. He likes loners, because he is one at heart.

OD&D is getting out the hose and telling all you little bastards to get the fuck off his lawn.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;859635OD&D is getting out the hose and telling all you little bastards to get the fuck off his lawn.

Daaaad! Grampa's having one of his fits again!

Pathfinder is one of 3e's illegitimate kids, born right after a messy divorce from Auntie Paizo. He's good looking and successful, but has a streak of OCD that makes grandpa 1e look laid back by comparison. Pathfinder talks trash about his cousins, especially 5e. People either love him or hate him.

Dungeon World is an adopted kid. They say he's not actually related to the rest of the family, but damn if he doesn't have a lot of great grandpa's mannerisms.

Quote4e is your League of Legends-addicted cousin on Ritalin. He's not a bad kid, just... broadcasting on a different frequency.*

I appreciate that you used LoL instead of another game that gets bantered about..

Like the analogy

Quote from: Batman;859667I appreciate that you used LoL instead of another game that gets bantered about..

Like the analogy

Your uncles will try to bond by asking about World of Warcraft and going "I used to play a Paladin too" and the kid will just roll his eyes.

Again, betraying my biases. Firmly casual WoW player here.

Silent Legions is, some believe, a hybrid. They say she wasn't born naturally, but by mixing artificially the DNA of one of the elders with uncle CoC's contributions.
She's more free-wheeling than CoC and technically less likely to drive you mad, but they both make you feel powerless when you play at family gatherings, unless you make some special arrangements before the game even starts.

Arduin is the West Coast cousin who was doing EVERYTHING before it was a thing, from curmudgeonly to avant-garde, published with sheer brio decades before the OGL safety net. Older than AD&D*, more mechanically baroque than Eldritch Wizardry, more powered-up than 4E, at least as bloody as RoleMaster, the original patron of Erol Otus (and Michio Okamura among others).


*The original trilogy was published 1977-78, the AD&D DMG not until 1979.

Hackmaster is the red-headed stepkid that looks a lot like grandpa 1e, adopted a lot of his mannerisms, and yet during family get-togethers does nothing but go on about his collection of Mad Magazines.

Quote from: Phillip;859703*The original trilogy was published 1977-78, the AD&D DMG not until 1979.

Bah.  Young punks.

Quote from: AsenRG;859678Silent Legions is, some believe, a hybrid. They say she wasn't born naturally, but by mixing artificially the DNA of one of the elders with uncle CoC's contributions.

I wouldn't go so far as to suggest she was born in a test-tube. But there's definitely something fishy about her parentage.

I'm told her unusual looks are very common in her hometown back in Massachusetts.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;859704Hackmaster is the red-headed stepkid that looks a lot like grandpa 1e, adopted a lot of his mannerisms, and yet during family get-togethers does nothing but go on about his collection of Mad Magazines.

Yeah, the one and same. That kid (and I use the term loosely, he's older than C&C and OSRIC) is retarded.

*Takes notes*