This article originally appeared in d20 Weekly

Beyond the Screen

But is it a good game accessory?

by Dale Donovan

Editor's Note: Before I get to the main portion of this column, I wanted to take a few lines and publicly thank Kevin Pease, the artist who's been bringing you "Absurd Notions" every week now for over three months. This week's strip is the last Kevin is doing for us; you can read his reasons why in the strip itself. I just want Kevin, and all the readers, to know that Absurd Notions brought a lot to each week's zine, and that the zine will be the lesser for its, and Kevin's, absence. Everyone involved with d20 Weekly wishes you well, Kevin, and take care.
-- Dale

Much controversy has surrounded the Book of Vile Darkness (BoVD) and its mature-audience content since Monte Cook started hinting about its existence in various online discussion boards months ago. The fact that both the 300th issue of Dragon and issue #95 of Dungeon had sealed, "mature content" sections incited more than one Internet flame war, with lots of folks flying off the handle in this direction or that, numerous invectives being tossed back and forth like hot potatoes, and scores of teeth gnashed for one reason or another. All that, and the book wasn't even out yet. Well, now it is and I have one, so I thought I'd talk about it here.

My intent is not to debate whether this book should have been published, whether it's good or bad for roleplaying as a whole, or whether it's pandering on the part of Wizards. For that kind . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.



Article publication date: October 2, 2002

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