T-Minus 48 Hours until OMGcon!!!!!!

We can't wait to see you all out at this weekend's OMGcon. In it's fifth year, Paducah's annual anime and gaming convention is set to be even bigger! Members from many chapters, including the Sic City Ogres, Soil Ogres, Derby City Ogres, Saluki City Ogres, and many more including us (your very own hometown Quilt City Ogres), will be in attendance. In addition to that, our chapter had the privilege to create the schedule for the tabletop room for this year. Click here to check it out!
Anyways, we'll be filming for our youtube as always, especially during our RPG Myths, Lies, & Misconceptions panel. See you there!

GULGAR
Ogres Out

Middle TN State University's Psychological Gaming Survey

A student at MTSU is currently conducting a survey among both tabletop gamers and console/computer gamers. The goal is to highlight and quantify the benefits of social interaction and development that can come from gaming, especially traditional tabletop or LARPing style gaming that has a physical aspect. We're making a call to see if you could please take the time to do the survey that fits you best (if you're more of a tabletop or LARP gamer, then only fill out that survey, and if you're more of a console or computer gamer, then only fill out that survey). The more data they have to work with, the more precise they'll be able to be. Positive gaming studies are a rare and great item, so please - please - take the few seconds to take the appropriate survey.

So, click here to take the tabletop/LARP survey or click here to take the console/computer survey.

Until next time....

GULGAR
Ogres Out

A Brief Introduction

Hey guys!

Its Davo here, your new OGRE Editor-in-Chief, just checking in.

We've got a lot of upcoming changes here around the OGRE Lair, so keep an eye out for what is to come!
As a quick introduction, I suppose, I shall let everyone know that my intentions as Editor is to, first and foremost, make sure all the current content available is grammatically and typographically accurate, to the best of my ability. Parallel to that in importance is making sure everything is well composed and a worthwhile read. I know from personal experience that great concepts can turn sour by poor content, and that is something we do not wish to fall victim to here.

As a second order of business, if any chapter or person associated with the OGREs has any fiction writing from personal 'homebrew' settings, games, etc... and would like to submit them for review to be added to the Wiki and the OGREs mainstay literature, just send it to me and I'll review it, edit it, and respond with its acceptance or declination, but never will I decline without a reason and a way to amend what you submit for further consideration once altered.

That's all for now, as I don't have much time - I'm actually away from the Serenity game with our Supreme DMs car, so he is probably waiting for me to return so he can know with full assurance that his car is safe.

Until next week...

GULGAR
Ogres Out

Preparing for OMGcon, RPG Myths Panel

After shutting up for the entire month of April, we've decided to annoy you again! So, you, well, you just sit there and take it. We've had a great deal of fun recently, from local conventions to several new chapters, but the time is fast approaching for our chapter's favorite convention right here in our own backyard: OMGcon! In it's 5th year, the convention boasts over 1,000 attendees here in Western Kentucky who come together for anime and gaming. Oh, and guess what chapter of O.G.R.E.s is helping run the Tabletop Room?....Yep! You caught us, it's our chapter!

You can always hop over to our Calendar of Events page at the Ogre Lair and check out the schedule we've put together for the tabletop room. You may notice that we're planning a great panel entitled "RPG Myths, Lies, & Misconceptions: An Interactive Timeline of Bad Press." As RPG Examiner mentioned, we invite anyone to come and sit in (We're really hoping local journalist Mr. Walker of the Paducah Sun, who is infamous in the RPG world for some horrible articles on gaming he ran back in the 80s that stated things completely opposite of what sources had, will show up and get enlightened).

Other fun events include the Laser Ponies: Prances With Wolves session with it's very special pre-game Laser Pony Miniature Creation Workshop, the Magic: The Gathering booster draft tournament(which comes with a special prize provided by O.G.R.E.s), the first public testing of the homebrew West Canaan Wizards, Hex Games coming in to run a session of their in-development "All Stars" game with the previous working title of Super Zeroes, and of course some sessions of chapter favorites Settlers of Catan and BreadTwist.
Preregistration for OMGcon is open right now and those booking in groups get discounts, so make sure to jump on before it's too late. Other events outside of the tabletop room include cosplay contest, guests, panels, artist alley, vendors, rave, and so much more! You won't want to miss out on what will be our chapter's biggest party this side of OgreCon. Oh, and they'll be girls there. Yeah. Confirmed. We'd tell you more, but we're sure you already clicked the OMGcon link as soon as you read about girls and started the preregistration process. Good for you.

GULGAR
Ogres Out

New Ogres, New Chapter, and Egypt Wars

You may have noticed that we haven't uploaded much to Ye Olde Blog in the past few weeks. Well, here is our excuse - and it's a good one: our blogger just had a baby. Well, he didn't have it, his wife did, but he was there man. He was there.
Meet our newest Ogre, William James Riley Hooper, who came in at nearly 10 pounds after 36 hours of labor (followed by a C Section because who doesn't want to have all the agony of prolonged labor with the fun of surgery?).


You can see more chapter members here. Speaking of chapters, the Organization of Gamers & Roleplaying Enthusiasts would like to welcome yet-another new chapter aboard. This chapter goes by the name the Friendly City Ogres and hail from Athens in Eastern Tennessee.

Currently, our chapter is preparing for its participation in the Egypt Wars gaming convention in Carbondale, IL next month. Sponsored by Castle Perilous game store, the event is in about two weeks and we strongly recommend you come out and visit us at our O.G.R.E. booth. Til then....

GULGAR
Ogres Out

An Open Letter to the Boston Herald

Recently, a journalist posted this article on their website, discussing the already-disproven link between RPGs and crime (though they conveniently leave out the disproven part). The following was an email we sent to the journalist in question, and we encourage other users to as well.

Hello Ms. Sweet,

My name is Hooper and I'm a member of the Organization of Gamers & Roleplaying Enthusiasts, commonly known as the OGREs, where I sit on the Committee on Gaming Advocacy. Your recent short article has been brought to our attention and it truly concerns us.

You see, role-playing games have a long history of moral panic, misconceptions, misunderstandings, and downright lies. Additionally, the article you recently wrote seems to of just been a "filler" piece by you. Something that you may have penned down just to get something out there is yet another thing that harms our hobby industry. Professional study after professional study has found absolutely no link betwen role-playing games and any kind of violent or anti-social behavior.

On our website, www.ogrelair.org, you can find a link to RPG Myths, Lies, & Misconceptions. Additionally, groups like the CAR-PGA (another RPG advocacy group) and websites like www.theescapist.com (an RPG advocacy website) can assist you. Any of the individuals in these groups, or behind these websites, or myself - would love to speak with you on writing an article that shows the truth behind the misconceptions. The more that these misconceptions get spread falsely, the harder it is for honest individuals to understand the things and actions that are truly connected to criminal tendencies.

GULGAR
Ogres Out

*In the email, due to Murphy's Law, we told the reporter our website was www.ogrelair.com, not .org. That is incorrect. Sorry.

Wisconsin Prisons claim D&D promotes gang-related activity.

In a seemingly throw-back to the anti-D&D 1980s, the Wisconsin Prison System removed

Dungeon & Dragons books from an inmate's cell, claiming that the material presented within

them "promoted gang-related activities."

The inmate, Kevin T. Singer, serving a life in prison sentence for first-degree intentional homicide,

filed an appeal with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals against Wisconsin's Waupun Prison. The

court upheald that the prison's policy (initiated in 2004 to eradicate all D&D game materials) was reasonable,

and as such the prison will not allow Dungeons & Dragons material to be available within it's walls.

Now, we're the last inviduals to chime in on the topic of what should and should not be allowed

within the confines of a prison cell, but we are really alarmed by the reason given by the Waupun prison.

After extensive research by many great individuals into tabletop role-playing games, we can not find any

statistics to back up this claim by the prison system. Perhaps it is the fault of the pool of individuals surveyed,

as I do not believe that a proper study has been done on imprisioned players, so we're not going to say

that it may be outright false. However, we would love to hear the reasoning and events or actions by inmates

that led to the policy being enacted.

It is with this reason that we have copied the below contact information for the Warden of the prison in

question, taken directly from the correctional facility's website. Please give a call or send a quick

and polite email requesting the reasoning, or a letter to the address below.

Mr. Michael Thurmer, Warden
200 S. Madison St, PO Box 351
Waupun, WI 53963-0351
Phone: 920-324-5571
Fax: 920-324-7250

GULGAR
Ogres Out