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The Silence at the T4G Blog
- 12/05/08
- 67
My buddy Scott wrote me recently to ask if I happened to know why the Together for the Gospel blog has gone silent. I took a look at the blog and, sure enough, it has not been updated since April. I snooped around some. As far as I can tell, the reason the blog has not been updated is this: the four “friends” are no longer talking to one another. There is a bit of a spat going on that they’ve been unable to resolve. I gave this scoop to Scott and thought I’d let you in on it, too. Here’s what I wrote him.
You probably knew this already, that after the Together for the Gospel conference wrapped up, all of the speakers went back to Al Mohler’s place to relax and play some Dungeons & Dragons. They’re all huge fans of the game and have been gaming together for years. Dr. Mohler has a whole gaming setup in his library. It’s pretty impressive, really. He’s great at painting up the D&D miniatures and has an extensive collection of them.
Anyways, a couple of hours into a quest, when they were clearing out a dungeon, there was some kind of argument over whether Dever’s level 6 dwarf ranger had actually destroyed Mahaney’s level 7 cleric. I guess Dever happened across an enchanted Threnalian war blade that he thought would enable him to balance Mahaney’s Inflict Moderate Wounds spell, so he attacked. But, as it happened, he ended up losing. He misunderstood the ratings of his gnashtooth chainmail, not realizing that it costs him -3 HP against clerics (which is funny because that’s pretty common knowledge). Dever came on strong and inflicted a fair bit of damage with his new sword, but Mahaney kept casting regenerate spells to fix it up. He also cast some spell (I never found out which) to counter the benefit of the dwarf’s surefoot boots. He actually ended up winning by a pretty good margin. This kind of swung the balance of the game. How could it do otherwise, really?
Mohler, playing a level 4 halfling bard, turned on Duncan’s elf rogue even though they had earlier decided to work together (and had even completed the Caverns of Shaagh quest together, and you know how long a quest that is!). So suddenly you’ve got Mohler’s halfling ditching Duncan in favor of Mahaney. Piper was dungeon master and ended up ruling in favor of Mahaney and Mohler! Well, you can imagine how well that went over. Dever said something about “not as well as I deserve” and threw a handful of 20-sided dice at Mahaney. C.J. told Dever to preach this to himself, and smacked him upside the head with the rule book (The 4th Edition one from Wizards of the Coast, which, as I’m sure you know, is like a six-pound hardcover). Mohler tossed a glass of water at Duncan and told him something about “now you’re baptized too” while Duncan rolled up his sleeves and yelled “Time to bring on the hurt!”. And things just went downhill from there. MacArthur and Anyabwile waded in and did their best to break it up while Sproul sat back and watched the show, a single tear falling slowly from his eye.
So pretty well the guys avoid each other now. The T4G blog has gone silent, as has their World of Warcraft clan and the fantasy football league. I’m hoping they can work things out. T4G 2010 just won’t be the same if they won’t talk to one another.
That’s how I see it. I guess I could have gotten confused in some of the details, though.
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Comments (67)
HAHAHAHAHA! Too funny!
That may be the most hilarious thing I’ve read in months!
This sounds like some of the “inductive preaching” exercises I remember from seminary — we are supposed to draw out of this as “hearers” the lesson Tim as preacher has for us. Am I too simplistic, or is the point that Christians united around the important (the gospel) can get sidetracked by the unimportant (hit points)? Great stuff as always, Tim!
Brilliant!That post compleatly makes up for my hour long commute in the snow this morning. Hilarious stuff Tim.
That was too funny! Somehow I just can’t picture Dr. Mohler painting those miniatures!
Just a hunch, but I bet Thabiti would make a good “enforcer/peacemaker”!
Hilarious, Tim. Absolutely hilarious.
Tim, that was wonderful. heh.
Quite entertaining! Imagining all those guys playing D&D is quite funny.
Gold
That made my day. Just picturing the main characters in that situation made me laugh. Great stuff.
How could he have forgotten about the gnashtooth chainmail?!?
As an avid tabletop wargamer, I appreciate the humor. It comforts me to know that my favorite theologians have hobbies! I thought I was the only one who liked to throw the dice between a few chapters of Edwards.
Awesome! I want Piper to DM my campaign: “You find the +4 Holy Flail of JOY!!!!” Umm, and his next book, “Don’t Waste Your XP!”
See, the one thing you can never, ever do is throw the 20-sided dice. You could put someone’s eye out.
“Don’t Waste Your XP”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!
Brilliant - so so funny
“He also cast some spell (I never found out which) to counter the benefit of the dwarf’s surefoot boots.”
I got with Mahaney on this and come to find out it was a rare jewel he received for winning the Dragon’s Keep D&D Tournament back in ‘04 in Provo, Utah. The spell is called “Loose on Earth; Loose also in Heaven”. Very handy!
Wooooooooooow.
I’ll bet Mohler gets plenty of use out of his D&D setup around Southern. I can just see Dr. Stinson DM’ing for Mohler, Moore, Lawless, and Bolton.Dr. Bolton - Half-orc BarbarianDr. Moore - Halfling RogueDr. Lawless - Dwarf ClericDr. Mohler - Elven Ranger
LOL. That was good for a laugh. Now to watch this post go viral in the T4G community.
There are a few too many details in this post for me to feel comfortable about Tim writing it so well or me reading it with so much laughter.
I laughed, I cried, I made more popcorn…
Tim, this was genius, maybe a little too genius. I keep thinking about the one or two who won’t realize this is a joke - I don’t care what you do, there’s always one who doesn’t get it.. Thankfully it’s not me…this time.
Great post.
Wait………. this was a joke?
I agree with Matthew… it is too good, too many details, only an expert in this field would be able to write this… Tim?
Mohler is a big game player. Just check this out:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da3vK0fdO5s&eurl=http://rhettandlink.com/videos/
Good stuff. Very funny.
Seriously though, it would be nice to see the t4g blog running a bit although Mohler and Mahaney can be read on their respective blogs.
Hilarious. Both my inner geek and theolog were made extremely happy by this post.
That was hilarious! I’m trying to imagine Dr.’s MacArthur, Mohler, and John Piper fighting over D&D rules. I’m also trying to imagine somebody calling Dr. Mohler on Ask Anything Wednesday and bringing Tim’s post up… Would he start his answer with “You know, that’s an interesting question…”
You SCARED me…for just a tiny moment :)I was about to order for everyone the Jack Chick tract on the dangers of dungeons and dragons! *whew!*
Awesome.
I remember those tracts. I was playing DnD one night and just about to fly into a satanic rage and slay the neighbors due to my gameplay…but the tract saved me and I never played DnD again. Great post Tim. Your knowledge of the game is very….interesting :)
As my 2 y.o. would say - “Funny man! Funny funny man!”
:)
Best funny post since the baseball series.
I understood about one-quarter of what you said, but I laughed all the way through it!
Too funny! Perhaps they should try a simpler game - Candyland maybe?
Okay, so I have no idea what any of that means…thankfully I know enough to not take it seriously…but I have no idea what it means. :) I enjoyed the idea that what I was reading was ridiculous on some level, even if I couldn’t understand it. Thanks Tim!
Well, I’ve never played DnD, but I am a gamer. I prefer to play PC v. NPC games, though, where player interaction is to help rather than hurt each other. Do you suppose the rift would have been as great if they instead played FFXI and got upset at the white mage for only casting Raise II instead of Raise III during Dynamis? (Someone out there will know what I mean, I’m sure of it!)
So T4G became Apart from the Gospel?
Tim, are you sure the gnashtooth chainmail costs -3 HP against clerics and not -2HP , because the way I figure it, no matter how many regenerate spells he cast, it seems as though enchanted Threnalian war blade should have done more damage and I don’t think there is a spell to counter dwarf’s surefoot boots, Mahaney just made that up. Anywho, MacArthur could have thumped them all!
Thanks for this, twas pretty funny.
LOL
So why are they not blogging?
Hilarious! Thanks for sharing, Tim.
I knew the story was fals when you said Dever had a Dwarf Ranger. Everyone know Dwarfs can’t be rangers. Plus Dever strikes as a gnome type anways.
That was brilliant! Loved it, loved it, loved it! Thanks for the humor today.
Dever: [reaching for another slice of pizza] “I open the door.”
Piper: “You failed your spot check.” [sips Mountain Dew]All: (In best Mon Calamari impression) “‘It’s a trap!‘“Piper: [grinning] ‘Jesus saves. All others roll for damage.”
Very funny! I thought the first paragraph was serious. I’m super glad it’s not.
So… I saw this book at a bookstore today: http://www.amazon.com/Shoulda-Coulda-Woulda-Present-Future/dp/0310224608/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228535579&sr=8-5
What’s the deal?
That was really funny. Thanks for the bit of humor on a Friday afternoon.
I enjoy reading your blog.
that was hilarious! just trying to imagine the fighting scene between these grown up men, just priceless!“Dever said something about “not as well as I deserve” and threw a handful of 20-sided dice at Mahaney. C.J. told Dever to preach this to himself, and smacked him upside the head with the rule book (The 4th Edition one from Wizards of the Coast, which, as I’m sure you know, is like a six-pound hardcover). Mohler tossed a glass of water at Duncan and told him something about “now you’re baptized too” while Duncan rolled up his sleeves and yelled “Time to bring on the hurt!”.”
The funniest thing I’ve read in a year or more. YES!
The imagery of this group of guys arguing D&D rules is, for this former D & D player, sublime.
I’m just imagining JP running a group through Tomb of Horrors or some other player-killing dungeon. I shiver with delight at the mere idea.
And “Don’t Waste Your XP”…almost blew my ginger ale all over my screen. Please, please, Tim, write more along this line!
“Mohler tossed a glass of water at Duncan and told him something about “now you’re baptized too” Mohler would never claim baptism by sprinkling, even in a fight! LOL
Tim this is a genuinely brilliant mental image. And you had my heart stopped for a second there because right above your post in my reader was an ad for next year’s T4G conference and my thought was “oh NO…what HAPPENED!?” Perfectly lovely happenstance.
You do realize the dnD rules will now have to be rewritten to include four more races……credo-baptist, paedo-baptist, cessationist, and continualist?
And we thought player vs player combat was ugly before!