I can think of nothing nerdier than Dungeons and Dragons.  When I was a kid I had a few opportunities to play it and the sci-fi variation (Star Frontiers) and the James Bond variation (Top Secret).  It was always a fun time, except for that one D&D module where you find the crashed space ship.  “When you look down the corridor you see another Jet.  Black.  Door.”  Tedious!

I was always the DM so I never really got to play.  I think this had a lot to do with the fact that I owned all the stuff and none of my friends wanted to put the effort in to setting up an adventure.  This was fine with me since we didn’t play very much but I enjoyed reading manuals and stories that the modules told.

I hadn’t thought about D&D for years until I ran across the podcasts of some cartoonists running through the newest edition of the game for the first time.  It seems like the rules have been streamlined in ways I would really appreciate.  The podcasts themselves are really funny and enjoyable to listen to.

This led me to some videos of the guys from Robot Chicken playing the newest version of D&D.  Again, for many in the group this was their first time so it was neat to get some explanations of how the new rules work in a very entertaining way.

I’d love to play sometime but I know how unlikely this is.  D&D is time consuming.  I’ll probably have to be content to listening to these funny adventures while I’m drafting stuff and doing other work.

You can hear the cartoonist’s podcasts here.  Be sure to click on the thumbnail picture for each podcast to see the accompanying illustration.

You can watch the Robot Chicken guys here.

Beware, that some foul language is used.  Not too much, but still something to keep in mind.