The 2nd part of our epic Dungeons and Dragons podcast featuring myself and the guys at Penny-Arcade has been posted for your enjoyment. This week, Mike totally wins on the artwork. His panel is brilliant. I really struggled with mine. Try to ignore how much it sucks.

I just got back from the local bookstore where I just picked up the Players Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual. More so than with other new editions, I’ve had a lot of friends casually inquire about starting up some gaming sessions. It seems like everyone wants to play.

I’m also getting a lot of emails from uber-gaming-nerds who are infuriated that I’m supporting the new 4th edition. For those people, I would like to reflect on the great sage Aurthur Fonzarelli and reply with a hearty “Sit on it, Potsie!”

You know what I don’t miss about my old D&D gaming sessions? I’ll tell you. I don’t miss the ridiculous debates between the min-maxing rule-mongers over some bullshit minutia or statistic. If Wizards wants to make a simpler version of their classic game in the hopes of making the time spent playing more enjoyable, while at the same time bringing in a a whole new group of gamers who might have avoided it in the past…awesome! Yay!

Guess what? Your 3.5 edition stuff did not disintegrate into a pile of black dust today. Get over yourselves. Nobody gives a shit that you committed all the old books to memory and figured out the math of the rules to totally max out your character. Nobody wants you at the table. We only invited you because you got all the books and so many goddamn miniatures.

My father introduced me to D&D with the red and blue box editions. My dad. He played. Everyone played then. It just stopped being for everyone when it got bogged down by the weight of all the dead trees the advanced rules were printed on.

If you like the advanced stuff, play it. But don’t discourage Wizards from bringing people like my DAD back into the fold. How could that be a bad thing?