Greetings once more, my long-suffering nerd comrades. Having finally been freed of (most of) my midterms, I’m back to tell you about that geekiest of all pasttimes—roleplaying games—along with nerdy music and where to find nerdy things on and off campus.

Tabletop Games

I say “tabletop games” because roleplaying games exclude the ever-enjoyable Magic: The Gathering—the subject of my lost-to-a-server-crash first post of the semester—among other games. Regardless, you’ve likely heard of Dungeons and Dragons, that most stereotypical of nerdy  activities. It may look simply like a way to escape into fantasy, but a well-run game of D&D is so much more than that. It can be a grand  adventure to unknown lands, a tale of political intrigue, a strategic challenge, or even a tale of horror (though there are other games more well-suited for the latter). Most of all, D&D is a way to have fun with friends, cooperating with your party to defeat the toughest of monsters or  stabbing them in the back to steal all their loot. The latter is generally frowned upon unless done in a spectacular or humorous manner, by the  way. If fantasy isn’t your thing, you can also check out games like Cyberpunk, which is just what the title implies; Traveller, a sci-fi space  adventure; Call of Cthulu, the definitive horror role-playing game; or Eclipse Phase, which combines all of the above with a dash of  Transhumanism.

As for where to find these wonderful games, and more importantly where to find a group to play with, the best resource is by far No Such Organization (NSO)—the org responsible for the invasion of the College Center by strange vendors and costumes a few weekends ago. Through our mailing list, you can send out a call to anyone who might be interested in playing or running a role-playing game. To sign up for the mailing list, which also keeps you up-to-date on all of NSO’s semester events, you can email me at nimichel@vassar.edu, and I’ll pass on your email to the appropriate people. The other place to find RPGs near Vassar is Dragon’s Den, the local comic and games shop. There is generally at least one car of NSO members that goes there on Fridays to play Magic: The Gathering, and the shop is in the same plaza as the Route 9 Stop and Shop. Speaking of Magic, if you want to learn to play, get back into the game, or just fool around, there are Magic meetups every Tuesday and Thursday at 7:00 pm in the Jewett MPR.

Now, on to music. There’s only so much one can say about a song before it becomes easier to just tell people to listen to it, so I’ll skip right to the listening part. Here are four of my favorite techno and metal songs by some truly excellent groups.